Spice grinder?

[Anonymous]

What is a grinder that will grind the smallest quantities? For example some of the Indian recipies call for spice mixture of say 2 garluc cloves, little cinnamon, two chillies etc. Any suggestions please? TIA.

[Anonymous]

Try a coffee grinder. I use a Braun one.

[Anonymous]

Agree. I use an old coffee grinder for just spices. Braun and Krups make great ones for $10-20 that will work well. You'll want the blade kind, not the burr ones.

[Anonymous]

I have heard good things about the magic bullet for grinding spices. I think the women from showmethecurry.com use one to make ground spices.

[Anonymous]

I also use a coffee grinder.

[Anonymous]

for such small quantities I use a mortar and pestle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:for such small quantities I use a mortar and pestle.

+1

I also keep individual dry spices that I use often in pepper mills. Good for small amounts in recipes and for topping dishes with a little fennel seed or sumac or whatever.

[Anonymous]

The spice grinders PPs have suggested are not to be used with wet ingredients like garlic and ginger, because you can't wash them. I use them exclusively for dry spices. To "cleanse" between different spice blends I run a small handful of cheap rice through the grinder and wipe out with a dry paper towel.
If I were to make, say, the exact spice blend you've mentioned, I'd grind the cinnamon and chillies in the spice grinder, but use a microplane for the garlic.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks PPs. So I cannot wash a coffee grinder? Sorry, I am not a coffee drinker and have no idea about it. What I have heard is that coffee grinders do not take anything "wet" like garlic or green chillies. Is that right?

I have two mortar and pestles. One is a stone one that an Indian friend brought me from India. As much as I like the result, I hate lifting it up to counter, then cleaning and then putting it away. That thing is seriously heavy. The other one I have is a steel one I bought here. The pestle is so skinny that it doesn't even get one garlic under it.